Govt Inks Pacts With 16 Solar Power Developers

Solar power generation in the country got a major boost on Monday, with th government signing memorandum of understanding with 16 private project developers to set up 84 MW solar power projects by 2013.

Out of the 84-MW solar power projects, a migration scheme was offered to the power developers, under which 54 MW capacities will be generated through solar photovoltaic and 30 MW through solar thermal technology.

The Ministry of Power and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy also jointly released the guidelines for selection of new solar power projects under the 1000 MW Solar Power Scheme, in the first phase of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.

This is a significant development in the solar power, since grid connectivity was a major hurdle. With these guidelines, the grids would have to adopt methods to flow the solar power into the mainstream.

The government cautioned that stringent measures have been put in place for those stakeholders, not following the norms of grid connectivity. “The Prime Minister is very keen that India should be amongst the leaders in development of green energy,” said Sushil Kumar Shinde, Union Minister for Power.

In order to highlight the seriousness of the government on uptake of solar power projects, the guidelines have been made stringent, to avoid squatting by the power developers on the project licence. For example, if a project is delayed beyond three months from the commissioning date, the project developer will have to pay liquidated damages at the rate of Rs 1 Lakh per megawatt, per day of delay, to NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), the nodal agency to purchase solar power generated by independent developers.

While all the companies that had signed the MoU today were bullish about the project, they said, they are in talks with the government for relaxing certain norms. One of the requests is to allow the import of solar power equipments beyond one year.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) in a statement stated, that it Solar Energy Task Force chaired by Mr K Subramanya, CEO of Tata BP Solar, and co-chaired by Mr Vivek Chaturvedi, Senior VP, Moser Baer Photovoltaics feel, the new guidelines will help strengthen the twin pillars of manufacturing and technology towards building a new sunshine industry within the country.

Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah was categorical, “There is no question of relaxing norms beyond one year. We want to make India major hub for manufacturing of solar power equipments.” Deepak Puri, Chairman and Managing Director, Moser Baer India Ltd said, “The inclusion of apt stringent clauses in the guidelines which will promote serious participation from all players.